30 Day Writing Meme: Days Two and Three
That's me in the foreground of my icon realizing I've already missed a day on this meme and it was only the second day. Gah.
2. How many characters do you have? Do you prefer males or females?
I'm not really sure I get the first part of this question. Um...a lot? Because I have a lot of WIPs and a couple finished short stories? I can say that I try to concentrate on one or two main characters in each story or novel, with a wide array of additional characters depending on how long the piece is. But so far, I've never had more than two big focal characters in any story. As for sex, I like writing both male and female characters, and I have a pretty even list of both. I'm not sure how I decide if my main characters are males are females, but they usually just spring forward as one or the other. I've noticed is that more of my men tend to be queer than my women, and I have no idea why that is, especially as I'm a queer woman myself.
3. How do you come up with names, for characters (and for places if you're writing about fictional places)?
For character names:
Sometimes I steal them from other books or stories. (In my one published story, I took the name Costis from The King of Attolia. He is a totally different character -- I just really liked the name.) Sometimes I steal them from television. I've used fantasy name generators and baby name web sites, especially in my Japanese-inspired fantasy world stories, like http://www.behindthename.com/nmc/jap.php. Also, I got a lot of great names (first names especially) watching the Olympics. All those cool foreign names. But a lot of times, they just pop into my head when I'm starting the story and I go with it. For my horror story "Bloodletting", I named the main character Jim, because he is just a normal, poor sap of a guy with a damaged marriage and slight anger issues, and I wanted him to have an average name. For my horror story "Singing the Round," I named the main character Cassie, and I really have no idea why. It just came out that way. Where did it come from? I don't even know anyone named Cassie.
For places:
It's a lot harder to come up with names for fantasy or SF places than characters and I have a lot of respect for authors who come up with evocative names. For example, the two societies in Elizabeth Bear's Dust are named Engine and Rule -- which just sound good. Engine and Rule. Love it. I've noticed in my world-building that I tend to name smaller places, like streets or rivers or a few towns/cities, without naming the overall world, because I can never think of anything that sounds good. Basing names of fantasy places on real place names (current or historical) and twisting them around a little is one option, but you can't make it too obvious or everybody thinks of the real place instead; totally making them up can work as long as it doesn't sound stupid. It's hard to judge what sounds stupid, I think. If I read a summary for a new fantasy book or series and it's full of made-up words and place names that feel made-up and arbitrary, I tend to put it down right away, but it's hard to identify what's wrong with those names that isn't wrong other times. You know?
2. How many characters do you have? Do you prefer males or females?
I'm not really sure I get the first part of this question. Um...a lot? Because I have a lot of WIPs and a couple finished short stories? I can say that I try to concentrate on one or two main characters in each story or novel, with a wide array of additional characters depending on how long the piece is. But so far, I've never had more than two big focal characters in any story. As for sex, I like writing both male and female characters, and I have a pretty even list of both. I'm not sure how I decide if my main characters are males are females, but they usually just spring forward as one or the other. I've noticed is that more of my men tend to be queer than my women, and I have no idea why that is, especially as I'm a queer woman myself.
3. How do you come up with names, for characters (and for places if you're writing about fictional places)?
For character names:
Sometimes I steal them from other books or stories. (In my one published story, I took the name Costis from The King of Attolia. He is a totally different character -- I just really liked the name.) Sometimes I steal them from television. I've used fantasy name generators and baby name web sites, especially in my Japanese-inspired fantasy world stories, like http://www.behindthename.com/nmc/jap.php. Also, I got a lot of great names (first names especially) watching the Olympics. All those cool foreign names. But a lot of times, they just pop into my head when I'm starting the story and I go with it. For my horror story "Bloodletting", I named the main character Jim, because he is just a normal, poor sap of a guy with a damaged marriage and slight anger issues, and I wanted him to have an average name. For my horror story "Singing the Round," I named the main character Cassie, and I really have no idea why. It just came out that way. Where did it come from? I don't even know anyone named Cassie.
For places:
It's a lot harder to come up with names for fantasy or SF places than characters and I have a lot of respect for authors who come up with evocative names. For example, the two societies in Elizabeth Bear's Dust are named Engine and Rule -- which just sound good. Engine and Rule. Love it. I've noticed in my world-building that I tend to name smaller places, like streets or rivers or a few towns/cities, without naming the overall world, because I can never think of anything that sounds good. Basing names of fantasy places on real place names (current or historical) and twisting them around a little is one option, but you can't make it too obvious or everybody thinks of the real place instead; totally making them up can work as long as it doesn't sound stupid. It's hard to judge what sounds stupid, I think. If I read a summary for a new fantasy book or series and it's full of made-up words and place names that feel made-up and arbitrary, I tend to put it down right away, but it's hard to identify what's wrong with those names that isn't wrong other times. You know?